LIVERMORE FALLS - The governor visited the Jay and Livermore Falls area today, stopping in at the medical center under construction on Depot Street.

Franklin Memorial Hospital representatives met with Governor Paul LePage at the Livermore Falls Medical Arts Center for brief tour of the facility, which is expected to be complete on Jan. 5. The center will merge two offices; Franklin Health Livermore Falls Family Practice on Union Street and FMH Outpatient Services on Main.

FCHN President Rebecca Ryder and Kevin Bunker, project planner and a founder of Developers Collaborative, the Portland-based firm developing the Medical Arts Center, showed the governor a building with complete external walls and a roof. Inside, metal superstructure delineated offices and corridors, as well as two entrances, one at the rear parking lot and another opening out toward the Bank Building and Livermore Falls downtown.

Bunker noted the second entrance was designed to integrate the building into the downtown, a concept LePage immediately seized upon. He agreed with the logic, saying that improving the downtown in communities across the state was a key step in revitalizing the area.

Governor Paul LePage meets with members of FCHN and the community outside the medical arts center.